During your first month at the company as the Head of Sales, it's essential to have productive one-on-one meetings with the demand generation and revenue operations teams to align strategies, understand processes, and foster collaboration. Here are some questions you should consider asking during these meetings: 1. Demand Generation Team: * What are the primary goals and objectives of the demand generation team? * Can you walk me through the current demand generation strategy and tactics being used? * What channels and tactics are most effective in generating leads and driving customer acquisition? * How are leads qualified and passed to the sales team for follow-up? * Are there any areas of opportunity or challenges that the demand generation team is currently facing? * How can the sales team better support the demand generation efforts, and vice versa? 2. Revenue Operations (RevOps) Team: * What is the role of the revenue operations team within the organization? * Can you provide an overview of the current sales processes and workflows? * How are leads and opportunities managed within the CRM system, and what data is being tracked? * Are there any gaps or inefficiencies in the current sales operations that need to be addressed? * What tools and technologies are being used to support sales operations, and are there any opportunities for optimization or integration? * How can the sales team collaborate more effectively with the revenue operations team to improve efficiency and effectiveness? 3. Alignment and Collaboration: * How can we ensure alignment between the sales, demand generation, and revenue operations teams to achieve common goals? * Are there regular meetings or touchpoints where the three teams can collaborate and share insights? * What metrics or KPIs should we track collectively to measure the success of our efforts and identify areas for improvement? 4. Future Initiatives and Opportunities: * Are there any upcoming initiatives or projects that the sales team should be aware of? * How can the sales team contribute to the success of these initiatives, and what support will be needed from other teams? * Are there any emerging trends or opportunities in the market that the sales team should be leveraging?

Absolutely yes! We celebrate high performers in team meetings (also broader teams) and share their attainment and other KPIs (not all of course). We also share averages amongst all team members so that everyone can compare themselves with others. We do have a culture of transparency established very early on.

There's a few different ways to gauge a candidate's autonomy in a sales interview. 1. Behavioral Questions: Ask situational questions that require candidates to describe times where they had to work independently to achieve sales targets or overcome challenges. For example one of my go to questions is, "What's the most creative, out of the ordinary, or above and beyond thing you’ve done to win a customer?" 2. Past Experience: Review the candidate's resume and ask about specific examples where they demonstrated autonomy in previous sales roles. Inquire about their sales process, strategies they implemented independently, and decisions they made autonomously. 3. Problem-solving Scenarios: Present examples of current sales scenarios and ask how the candidate would approach them. Evaluate whether they demonstrate the ability to think critically and make decisions independently in real life situations that arise. 4. Role-play Exercises: Conduct role-playing exercises where the candidate must handle a sales scenario independently. We ask candidates to run a discovery call and give them basic information on the team. Observe how they handle the situation and objections without much assistance or input.

Love this question, too. It's true. There are a few reasons: 1. You will always have outliers in a sales org. Sometimes a rep has a windfall and reaches quota without hitting KPIs, I've seen it. But the point of KPIs is the make success repeatable. 2. It gives your managers a tool kit to help coach and manage performance. 3. How do you eat an entire elephant? One bite at a time. Each KPI is a "bite" and we do best when faced with a big task (annual quota) to break it down to as small of pieces as we can.

Sales stakeholders can come from any department within an organization and as the company grows, their input is key to sales success. A few examples may be: 1. Product Teams: aligning sales strategies with new offerings and/or customer feedback 2. Marketing: greater integration for cohesive messaging and lead gen 3. Customer success: ensuring client satisfaction and retention 4. External partners: distributors, resellers, support partners can help expand market reach The best method to building and maintaining relationships with your stakeholders is to regularly communicate with them. Show appreciation for their support, inform them of changes, address their concerns and involve them in key decisions that may impact their area of the business. Creating trust and consistent communication will help build, or strengthen, your relationships.

As important as any KPI is why the metric is being measured, how you intend to reliably collect and review the data and the frequency you will get together to review the trend good or bad. In entering new markets, however difficult and unpredictable, you need to establish what you do believe to be true: size of the TAM, ICP definition and owners of each stage and target conversion of part of the funnel. Once you commit to the process - and give enough time for the work to show meaningful results, perhaps then can discuss what might feel arbitrary. If after all that there is still uncertainty about what goals might be realistic then commit simply to make improvements each week until there is enough data to set the right goal. Or take a leap of faith, set the goal and over communicate how and why you set it and what you'll do and why if you need to adjust at some point.

My two favorite technique to use when you believe a client may not be telling you the whole story is: 1) Humbling disclaimer - you can disarm a prospect who may be withholding information by humanizing the conversation and providing a humorous, self-deprecating "humbling disclaimer". This could sound like, “I’m sorry, but I must need another cup of coffee, because I just don’t get it, can you help me understand why that may be the case?” 2) Suggestive discovery - normalize the situation or state, and then asking a question informed by your perspective to probe deeper to get to the truth. That could sound like, “Got it, typically I’ve observed when other clients…it’s because of…to what extent would you say that is what is going on here?” With those two tactics, you can usually get to the truth of what may be happening.

Great question. I will frame my answer with what I see is the biggest transition most sales organizations are looking to make in today's economic climate - trying to move away from 'vendor-like sales' to a more 'consultative / trusted advisor' sales organization. Where i see the most vital ingredients to do that include the following: To be successful in sales going forward, professionals need a blend of both hard and soft skills to navigate the evolving landscape. Here are the most important ones: Soft Skills 1. Emotional Intelligence (EQ): The ability to understand and manage your emotions and the emotions of others is crucial for building relationships and trust with customers. Additionally, show up constantly with a perspective to your calls (you don't really care about the weather! Talk about trends you are reading about in their industry instead) and be authentic in your curiosity (every time you talk to some one its an opportunity to do discovery). 2. Active Listening: Listening to customers’ needs and challenges, and truly understanding their pain points, is key to offering relevant solutions. Also, be sure to multi-thread and learn from more than just one 'champion' - build the army of those who can do the selling for you when you're not in the room! 3. Adaptability: The market, products, and customer needs change rapidly. Being flexible and open to learning helps you stay ahead. Get out to industry events, read blogs, do some research in order to stay on top of what's happening....it shows you care 4. Become a Maser Storyteller: Clear, concise & persuasive customer stories helps in delivering compelling value propositions and negotiating deals effectively. 5. Relationship-Building: Cultivating strong, genuine relationships with clients helps in driving long-term business and trust. This will lead to more business over the duration of the account. Deals take time....don't just show up for when customers initially sign on the line that is dotted - show them you are there for the long term and that your focus doesnt open happen when you see potential dollar signs Hard Skills 1. Sales Methodologies: Mastering value selling frameworks like MEDDIC, Sandler, or Challenger allows professionals to follow a structured and repeatable process for closing deals. This is the future of sales - the days of 'feature function selling' are dwindling - you need to earn the right of customers time and wallet share by demonstrating value 2. Data Analysis: The ability to interpret sales data and analytics can help professionals identify trends, improve strategies, and make data-driven decisions. It can also lead to a repeatable and scalable sales play for others to follow 3. Digital Literacy: Understanding and leveraging digital tools, from automation to social selling, can help sales teams work more efficiently and engage with customers across platforms. 4. Product & Customer Success Knowledge: Deep understanding of your own products, services and how your customers are being wildly successful with them is critical to articulating value to your potential customers and aligning your solution with their needs. Together, these skills and approaches equip sales professionals to meet changing customer expectations and succeed in an increasingly digital sales environment.

Integrating effective discovery into your presentation and demonstration process is the differentiator between consistently winning and struggling to close deals. Value-based selling demands that discovery is seamlessly woven throughout your engagement with prospects. When executed properly, this approach enables you to: 1. Deeply understand the customer's pain points and their broader implications. 2. Connect these pain points to relevant, successful customer stories. 3. Clearly outline tactical capabilities that address these pain points and confirm alignment with the prospect's needs. 4. Guide the prospect towards "value day" — the moment when they acknowledge the solution has resolved their challenge. By focusing on discovery, you control two critical outcomes: * Validation of the Customer’s Pain: Confirm the pain is significant, and that the prospect is committed to addressing it. * Demonstration of Value: Map pain directly to value, ensuring a tailored demonstration that resonates. Avoid generic, one-size-fits-all demonstrations. Instead, focus your demo on solving the customer’s most urgent pain points—the issues that generated genuine engagement during discovery. Key Execution Tips: 1. Customize Your Demo: Avoid "canned" demos—these are for marketing, not high-impact sales. Start with the pain point that resonated most with your prospect and build from there. 2. Demonstrate Pain-to-Value Continuously: Throughout the demo, take the opportunity to ask, "Can you see how [our solution] helps you overcome [specific pain point] we've discussed?" This ongoing dialogue builds clarity and reinforces alignment. 3. Drive Confirmation and Momentum: Repeat this process at least three times. It reinforces the connection between pain and solution, drives momentum, and elevates the prospect's confidence in you as their preferred vendor. Remember, winning is about understanding and empathizing with the customer's challenges, and proving your ability to solve them effectively.

Many businesses focus on the effectiveness of a seller, where most of the attention should be. However, it can be very important to look at the effectiveness of those supporting your sellers, by measuring AE ramp time. If you can turn a 6 months period into say 4 months, you not only improve your revenue, but you can also improve the AE experience, leading to better employee satisfaction, higher referral rates, and lower attrition.